I’ll keep adding content when I have internet. It costs 2 dollars for 10 minutes on the island.
Nov 1, 2010
It was Monday. I was home from work. Fiona was frantic with this and that. What had we packed was did we need. Our flight left around 3 from San Jose to LAX. Darci, Alan, Rowena appeared in the Odyssey. We had our two orange bags, a blue bag, a backpack, and tons of food the angry 2.4 year old. We got dropped off at San Jose. We waited. We got on an uneventful flight, and arrived in LAX. Had to get the bus from terminal 2 to terminal 4, the international departure building. We at at the “grill” and watched the Giants win the world series. No shouts of joy in LAX. We made out way to the gate. Neve made two new friends. a 3 year old and a 19 month old. They ran around in circles from 9 to 9:40 – Fiona gave Neve some benidril at 9, and Neve was on the plane and out at 9:45pm.
Nov 3, 2010
We are still in air. I’ve watched many, many movies. The best was a dream movie with Leo. The worst was “the other guys” with will farrel and marky mark. I watch despicable me (I’m going to purchase this) – a freaking riot. I watched the 3rd twilight movie, which was a sap-fest. No I love you more – blah, blah, blah. I started watching dinner for smucks but the plane landed. I’m sure there are a few other movies in there that I watched too – I fell asleep for about an hour. Neve was great. She was out for about 6 or 7 hours. So was Fiona. Neve got the window, Fiona the middle seat, and I got the aisle. They laid out on the seats with their heads in my lap. The only problem was I couldn’t figure out to do with my left arm. I put it on the seat in front of me, I put it on top of my head, but it was no use – I think I headed up using Fiona’s head as arm rest a few times – she didn’t mind – ha. We skipped the US elections thank goodness. We found out the results when we landed – whatever. I mostly interested in the local props.
We got thru customs ok. The airport was a freaking mad house. Everyone and their mother, brother, and cousin was trying to go thru a tiny little door. Luckly we found a man who said to go to the yellow box – a secret way. We finally got out and found a man holding our name. He had a Hyndai van with a little trailer. he shoved all the bags in and we were off to the Medina. It was on Kent and Bathurst. A fancy hotel that required your key card to get in the front door if you were out late and again in the elevator. We made it to to the 28th floor. The views were amazing. The windows, and little balcony. Just awesome. The day was incredible too. Sunny, warm, and blue. Too bad the tourists were out of our minds tired. We thru our bags behind the counter and set off to get the harbour cruise. We got on a dock number 8 on the vegabond cruise ship for the lunch cruise special. A 2 hour cruise of all the sights, sounds, of the Sydney harbour. Rowena had king shrimp and oysters to her delight. Fiona and Neve were very happy. We came back from the cruise, settled in our amazing room. Neve nodded off, Alan nodded off. No, no we had to stay awake. So we set off for dinner. Fiona and I earlier in the day headed to the market to get some munchies, beer, and wine. We located a WestPac ATM (no fees eh). So we headed back that direction, but alas the food was not what we wanted. We ended up at a Spanish Tapas place. They had wifi. Our first connection with the outside world. Other places we past has wifi for 2 or 3 dollars for an hour. The hotel wanted 25 bucks for a whole day or 12.50 for an hour. Anyway, we had some tasty food, checked our email, and headed back to the hotel. Everyone was in bed by 7.
Nov 4, 2010
We slept from 7 to 7. Today is Thursday already. Neve had her tent. She had package away Elmo, Murphy, and her blanket in the tent so she was very ready. Our suite had two rooms, two bathrooms, and a laundry. One bathroom had a tub, Neve loved her bath and the water does spin counter clockwise as it drains. I’m sure I’ll get this on video. We got our Sydney visitor passed down in Darling harbour. It was a miserable day. Raining. We walked to the aquarium. It was awesome. They had underwater tunnels for sharks, and another for a matinee and tropical fish. They has huge tanks of tropical fish. It just kept going for miles. After the aquirium we ate at subway and took the ferry to the opera house in circular quay. We arrived at the opera house it was suppose to take 3 years and 7 million to build it took 18 years and 102 million. Ha. The Aussies paid it off in two years with a lottery. There are a bunch of different rooms and the shell is separate from the sound boards that are inside the shells. It was a very good tour. With our tour we got a 10 dollar snack. We had a very yummy pizza and some drinks. Then we meandered down to the Sydney Bar Harbor. We were meeting Anthony and his family (wife, daughter) and Lorian for drinks. Alan, rowena, Fiona found free wifi again thankfully.
Anthony showed up first. We tried the Sydney Opera beer. Not too bad. Then we tried the Boars Draught. It was pretty good. Then had Conlins Draught was was not too shabby either. Anythony said that James Squire Beer was very good. Luckly I bought a 6 pack of that at the store and had 2 of them last night so got to experience some good Auzzie beer right from the start 😉 We sat in the opera bar and watched the rain come down in buckets and the people going up and down on the bridge climb. Met his wife Guispie [sp?] and 7 month of daughter Molly. They were lovely and it was good to chat with Anthony and his family. They live over by Olympic park some place, and recommended the blue mountains. Maybe next time. They took off and then we trekked over to find some grub. Over dinner we wondered it the bridge climb tomorrow would be any good. I had a pint of Boars Draught, and Guinness pie. Lorien, Rowena has Guinness pie too, Fiona a cheese platter, and Alan had something forgettable because I can’t remember what he had. We said goodbye to Lorien and got a taxi back to the Medina. It was 11.20 back in the rain. We went straight away to bed at 9ish.
Nov 5, 2010
Ah Friday. The tourist place only gave us transport passes good for one day so Fiona and I ran down to the harbour and got a weekly pass. I missed breakfast. I had pancakes yesterday morning from the place next to the hotel. Anyway, we were off to the Tower. We ambled by the barracks and made our way to the westfield shopping center that had the Sydney tower sticking out the top of it. We made our way to the 5th floor, took our cheesy green screen photo, and made it to the top. It was a cloudy/sunny day just like yesterday. It has good views and am glad we had the passes to do all this touristy stuff. We has lunch at the mall – the rowes, fiona, and Neve had soup/noddles from Kung Fu Chinese. Me, a croissant with ham and cheese. I picked up a large chocolate croissant which was very good indeed.
After the tower we made our way to the gardens. They have they very large pyramid green houses with the upper and lower climates of Oz. They had some very interesting stuff – the orchids were quite nice. Took lots of photos. We made out out to the expansive green garden outside the greenhouses. We saw some gal shooting a music video by a big old tree. Fiona and Neve danced. We sat down and watched the birds, and Neve chase birds. We made our way back to the Opera house. They are setting up for the ARIA awards – some Aussie music award thing I suppose – a very big production by the looks of it. We made our way to a chocolate bar. I had a milkshake, Neve a chocolate chip cookie, Fiona dark chocolate brownie, Alan and Rowena some hot chocolate or the Big Chocolate surprise. It started to rain and we walked to the Sydney bridge. Alan and Rowena took Neve back to the hotel and Fiona and I made our way up George street and Cumberland to the Sydney Bridge Climb location.
We arrived 30 minutes early. Got a drink and chatted with fellow bridge climbers. It took 50 minutes to get rigged up. We started at 17:25 and were off on the bridge by 18:18. We couldn’t take anything. Had to go thru a metal detector and get wandered down. I had my jeans, and shirt on. They gave up a jumper with triangle all over it. Everything connected to these triangle so they wouldn’t blow away. We got a free hat because of our travel passes. It was very blowy and wet on the bridge. We got to do a practice run up very steep stairs. We did the real thing and it was very steep and wet. All the time we had this oversized zipper the size of a baseball with teeth in the middle that was always secured to the walkway. There was no chance to falling or slipping. They snapped off a bunch of photos at different locations (4 I think). Fiona and I had a really good time with the pictures. on the bridge. We finished by 9. We hailed down a cab right our side the climb office – they cabbie was very strange – he kept combing his hair with a brush again and again and again. I think he had a bit of OCD. Anyway 12.20 dollars later we arrived back at the hotel. We caught up with Alan and Rowena and went to bed.
Nov 6, 2010
Planes, ferries, and buses. This is a travel day. Woke up around 6:30 to Neve wanting milk. Anywho, was determined to get breakfast this morning. So we hurried to pack some last minutes things as today was the day to Fraser Island. The man with the van was arriving at 7:45. So told Alan and Rowena to order me a french toast and a bagel for Fiona. No such luck. The restaurant attached to the hotel didn’t open till 7:30. It was unlikely to get a nice breakfast. I ate some cheddar cheese and crackers for breakfast. Put the rest of the beer in my bag and some other nibbles. and the man picked us up. On virgin blue to Hervey Bay. The Hervey airport is great. It is one building with one airstrip. No security. Everyone bolted of the plane from the front and back. We tried to snap a shot of Fiona and Neve in front of the plane, but got yelled at by a nice lady who said, “No Photos”. I got a video, and would have gotten a picture if the camera was in the right mode. Perhaps we can get a shot on the way out? A man picked us up, and we had a nice little wait for a bus. A bus took us to the ferry. The ferry is not very exciting. There are blue seats. You can only get drinks at the bar (meaning it is against the law to drink your own drinks – oh well.) About to dock now. More in a bit.
We arrived to Fraser Island. They took us in and give us some tropical drink and handed out our rooms keys. We are in the looloocu villas. From what I understand out unit 203 is for sale for 275,000 Auzzie Dollars. The bags were tagged on the main land and waiting for us in the room. There is an upstairs (2 beds and a bath), and down 8 steps the kitchen, dining, and family room. There are two places in the main cabin to eat, and the Sandy Bar down off the jetty that serves pizza, beer, and burgers. The main places are Maheno Restaurant which does buffets for breakfast and dinner, and the Seabelle which only does swanky dinner. There is a village shop that sells other stuff that we can cook in the kitchen. We ate at the Seabelle and I had the taste of Aussie, a bit of kangaroo, emu, and crocodile. I had some Toohey’s Extra Dry beer. It was very light and crisp – like miller, coors, or Budweiser. Apparently it is the best seller here? Anywho the had two bites of each meat, and a salad. I think the kangaroo was the best of the bunch – a very lean meat. Came back from dinner and went to bed.
Nov 7, 2010
I forgot to mention that Queensland does not observe daylight savings so we had to switch our clocks back an hour. This meant out little friend woke up at 4:30 in the morning asking for milk. Awesome start. The birds in the morning are terrific – loud which a bunch of different sounds. Just excellent if you like those sort of things – I do, but then again I like sleep too. However given our little friend was awake I’m guessing the she like listening tot he birds too 😉 Anyway we are off to do a tour of the Island.
The tour was fantastic. A huge bus that was 18 inches off the ground took us thru the best off roading experience I’ve ever had. All 5 of us were at the back of the bus to we really got to experience all the bumps and tosses. I’m glad we had a car seat, but I’m not sure how Neve actually fell asleep. Fiona even asked me at one point to hold back her head against the car seat because of the pitching of the bus was so chaotic that she must of thought her little neck couldn’t take it. The resort is surrounded by a dingo fence, and the road has the metal grate over it so dogs/animals can’t cross. After 30 minutes of being tossed around like a broken puppet, we stopped at McKenzie lake. It was all rain water runoff collected in a 11 meter deep pool. The Ph level is about 3 to 4.5 so very acidic so only little tiny fish, some turtles, and a bit of shrimp are all that live in this perch lake. There are hundreds of these little fresh water lakes that dot Fraser Island. K’gari is what the aboriginal’s call it so someday it might be called that instead of a an abandoned captain with his wife who lives with the aboriginal tribe. Anyway, the lake was great. Had some cookies and drove down the road to have a little 45 minute hike. The hike was great and learned that the trees on Fraser Island were used for ships masts, or for the docks. After the hike we had some lunch at the Eulong Lodge. It was a buffet and ok. Then the bus drove on the beach. Apparently it is a road of some kind and you drive by blinker – meaning whatever side you have your blinker on is the side you want to drive or pass. We made it to an old ship wreck washed up on the beach. Then we made it to the colored sand dunes which was pretty neat. There was a 7 passenger Cessna plane that took 7 people off the bus and give them a 15 minute aeriel tour. One of the planes toured around on the beach, gained speed and took off right over the top of us – pretty neat. ha. Back on the bus and a bumpy tipsy ride later made it back to the Kingfisher Resort. We had dinner down at the Sandy Bar. I had some Toohey’s Lager which was better than the extra dry the night before. The 6 pack of James Squire disappeared the in the afternoon. Ah, the exotic drinks (A Cosmo, a chocolate thing called the Brumby, and Singapore Sling) at the Sandy Bar cost 15 bucks and the bar tender didn’t fill up the glass not cool. The pizza was good. Came back to the condo and went to sleep.
Nov 8, 2010
Ah, Monday. No plans today. Alan and Rowena argued about the hiking we should or should not be doing, but we meandered back to the Jetty and ran into our guide from yesterday. Kirsti was off on a 3 day tour with people. Pretty good. It started raining buckets so we got the little trolly back to the main building. We got to borrow some umbrellas and went on the little hike around the back of the resort. Learned about teatree and other native plants. It was a good little tour, and then we made out way back to the room and had some lunch – cheese, ham, bread, and leftover pizza. Fiona and I made it to the general store and picked up some cascade beer from Tasmania. Anyway, if it is indeed the same beer that I had when I was at Tasmania 10 years ago it is much better than Toohey’s or maybe I was just more thirsty? We spent the afternoon at the pool, and now just relaxing in the room listening to the rain and the Elmo movie. Not sure what we are going to do for dinner – I think we are going to starve and get eaten by dingo’s.
>>UPDATED<<
We finally got dinner at the Seabelle. I had the kangaroo fillet with a side of potatoes. The potato fries were the size of butter sticks. Neve had a break down and had to bring her back to the villa. Gave her some milk and she went to bed no problems. I found a sudoku program on the ipad – interesting game.
Nov 9, 2010
Tuesday the nothing day. We did book a canoe trip from the jetty up creek. Fabulous mangroves up the creek. Rowena was in the front, Fiona in the middle with Neve, and I was at the back. It was a good little tour – no one capsized and we only ran into the trees only a few times. Fiona and Rowena might saw different, but it was not that bad 😉 Came back from our outing to the villa to have lunch. After lunch we had some time to kill before the next little tour around the resort. Fiona and I sat in the main building and I had a Tooheys new (2 of them) and Fiona two house Chardonnay while we caught up on our Internet. for 6.60 we had 30 minutes of Internet. There are only a few places that offer wireless for free. It makes me wish I had a smart phone to be able to get on to free wireless whenever I can! Anywho, I managed to post the entire 7 days worth of blog on our Shutterfly site. i was sending another email and then the time ran out right in the middle of trying to send the email – doh! Anywho, we caught up with Alan and Rowena by the pool and had another beer and wine before our tour.
The gal that gave the tour was the same gal that gave the night walk – you tend of see the same people again and again here. Anywho, we tried this little bush fruit that the aboriginals would give there kids to keep them quite. Fiona remarked why would they need little bits of fruit when there is so much sand about, as Neve is fist full deep in playing in the sand. That was a good chuckle. The other bit that was quite remarkable was the huge biting flys called March Flies (because they are really nasty in March) is they have this little sweet pocket. The guide gal said to get one and she would so us – so I managed to get one and there was this little clear liquid that she managed to get out of the beastie. It was not much, but it was sweet. At the end of the tour we managed to see a kookaburra, a giant laughing bird. It is a larger version of the kingfisher as much as I can tell. Had dinner at the Sandy Bar, I had nachos over the burger. It was ok, but the Tooheys new is my new favorite beer on the island. Came home, but Neve to bed and played the Aussie national IQ test on TV. I did fairly well ~80% I would say. Not a total genius, but above average 😉 Today is our last full day on the island. We get the 2 ferry back to the mainland to get on a plane to go back to Brisbane, and then get on another plane to get to Cairns. We arrive in Cairns around 11pm, so it will be an interesting trip with the munchkin.
Nov 10, 2010
Woke up 4 times last night along with Fiona to sway Neve’s fear that she had somehow lost her blanket. Anyway she was a little sweat ball last night. She woke up and drank half a litter of water and promptly threw up all over herself. Poor girl. Gave her a bath and now everyone is gretting ready for the day. We might do one little tour before we get the ferry back. I’ll probably write more on the ferry, or multiple plane rides – otherwise will report on how the tired Fiona, Neve, and Tim do after the murderous travel day today. I just have to say, Goodluck to us 😉
>>Update 02<<
We finally arrived to Cairns. We took a train to the ferry, ferry across, bus to the airport, prop plane back to Brisbane airport. We hung out in the airport and managed to connect for 1 hour for 5 bucks. Updated the blog with the latest and greatest update. Neve found some friends at the airport and she played with them. We tried to update the ipad with updates but ran out of time. The prop plane was pretty neat – 30 seats. I sat next to a quantas guy from Brisbane who gave me some tips on what to see and do. He is off to vegas for the end of the year! Anywho sat in row 29 on a 737 from Brisbane to Carins. Basically we were the last seat on the bus. I was Austin Powers and Neve Fiona played in their seats. Neve fell asleep not too long into the flight and was asleep as we got out bags out of baggage claim and was asleep when the van picked us up. She stayed asleep as we made our way to our room, 209, in the Sea Temple in Palm Cove which is between Cairns and Port Douglas. We used a baggage cart and put the whole toddler and car seat on it to wheel her to the room – Fiona transferred her to the tent without any problem – yeah!
The hotel and room is great – we have our own bath. Everything is super moden with lots of hard surfaces. A bug tried to eat my head during the night and damn frog started chirping at 3am or something like that – and it was not a nice cute chirp you hear in a Disney movie. This was a rawkus sounds that rattling aluminum with small hammer. Anyway, I was more of a grump that usual in the morning. We arrive to the hotel around 11pm, and had to get up early for out tour to the reef.
Nov 11, 2010
Breakfast is awesome. The room has a few dead moths/bugs in it – but is a great room. The bathroom sliding doors do not shut but the bed and pillows are good. Anywho, a buffet of fruit, breads, cheeses, and bacon – basically a good spread. However we had to had to be ready for the bus by 7:30am. We caught the bus and went to the cruise terminal were the biggest reef boats were teaming with everyone and their uncle. We checked into a thing called reef magic. It was 60 minutes out and out little friend was going nuts. So nuts that she tossed her cooks on the boat 10 minutes from arriving to ‘Marine World’ which was a big floating boat that was covered in metal picnic tables, had come changing rooms, and a dive center, and a second story sun deck that was about as big as our wooden deck. On the way over I convinced Fiona that a little dive would be good for me. She gave in so I grabbed a big blue lycra suit, blue fins, mask and snorkel. A little boat took off from the barge and went about 200 meters from the boat to a place called the pinnicles. The dive went down to 19.4 meters, for 46 minutes. I went with a guy named Paul. We saw some barricuda, spotted cod, a quite flash of a shark, many parrot fish, and of course nemo (the clown fish). It was a great dive with visibility for 30/40 feet.
Back on the barge Fiona, Rowena, and Neve had gone in the water and meet Wally the local fish that the snorkelers, divers, and bubble heads could get their picture. The bubble heads chould walk out on lookout under water with a giant mask that give them 360 degree views with out messing up their hair or in some cases makeup. Anywho, Neve loved it. They didn’t have a mask small enough for her but we told her about fishes in the water and she loved bobbing in the ocean in her little pink suit. Had a buffet lunch which was quite good. I snorkeled and floated in the roped off area of snorkelers for the next 3 hours looking for more Nemo’s taking come underwater video. The boat took off around 3:30, and we were back to port by 5, and back to the hotel by 6. Ate dinner at the restaurant at the hotel. and had a great steak with Fiona. Neve loved the ‘chicken’ too.
Nov 12, 2010
Another really early day. Earlier than yesterday by 30 minutes. The breakfast buffet was again excellent. Ricky picked us up to take us on the Daintree adventure. He was a great guy and pretty much talked about stuff the entire day. We picked up two more people and off we went. Took a little hike is Mossman Gorge which was very pretty with a water fall and some rainforest elements. We way a red headed dragon which is a fancy name for a cool looking lizard. Next we took a little boat ride on a river and saw a croc. It was only a little one about 2 feet long, as all the big ones are in the water. The guide and everyone up here is super serious about not swimming or hanging bits off the boats. They has stories about cattle, little kids, tourists, locals going missing becuase of the crocodile. The boat guide yelled at the same guy twice for leaning over the boat or having any bit of him over the rail. Give a croc an opportunity and they will take it – the captain, Bruce, was not going to save him that was for certain if a croc saw an opportunity. Everyone of the boat lived as everyone got back on their respective touring vans. We stopped for lunch and and Neve loved the ‘chicken’ which was sausage. We took a another trek through the forest on a boardwalk and Ricky came with us to give us pointers and talk about the flora and fauna. We drove thru some creeks and took a very steep track up and down to get to a beach in Botney Bay (Sting-Ray Bay) which was off of Point Tribulation. Neve got very grubby on the beach and we learned/saw more mangroves. The mangroves on the boat tour were very interesting – the gray mangroove tree roots stick out straight from the water. Neve had a total break down in the bus from the exhausting day. We dropped off the Aussies that came on the trip with us. and finally got back to the hotel where Fiona was a shade of ash white. I guess she had a head ache and the windy/twisty roads didn’t help. She got back and went straight to bed, I gave Neve a bath. We ordered room service – a margarita pizza and a cheese platter. I had a Coopers beer – which was very tasty with the pizza. All is quiet now. Tomorrow, Saturday is a down day. Internet here is 11 bucks an hour so it will be a bit until we can actually post an update. Going to turn off Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom and go to bed.
Nov 13, 2010
Today was our relax day. Walked to town and had a burger and a beer. Played in the pool with Neve for about 2 hours. Neve crashed around 4:30 so we ordered up some indian take away and had that for dinner. Neve had some rice and we went to bed.
Nov 14, 2010
The Rowe’s (Alan and Rowena) check out today from Sea Temple and the Marshall’s (Tim, Fiona, Neve) stick around for another 2 days. We are McDonalds at the moment on free Internet trying to load up all the apps for the ipad. It took a bus ride to smithfields and a little trek, but we made it. Hopefully we can make all our updates here and not pay the 11 dollars an hour at the hotel 😉 Another two days of relaxing and pool side swims. Think we are going to go across to the zoo tomorrow – not sure how we are going to get the bus ride back yet – dum, dum, dum.
>>Update 3<<
So I forgot to mention that Neve spent 2 hours today playing on the playground. Going from the slide, the the spring thing, to a digger, and to a swing. She was a hot sweaty mess. We made it to Mcdonalds and guess what she was a hot sweaty mess there too – the reason – an outdoor play structure. The Neve-ster played for a good two hours out in the hot and humid Cairns day. Anywho, she was toast by the time we got the bus back to Palm Cove. The bus ride each way was 5.80, so it would have been cheaper to stay at the hotel, but we would not of had an adventure nor would Neve been a big hot sweaty mess. A lady at the mall said we would have to go to town (i.e. downtown Cairns) for me to get my Blunstone boots. We took our time becuase the people whose room we wanted to take didn’t check out, so we took our time getting back and arrived around 4. Anywho, Neve did crash. But that is not the only thing that broke that night. It appears that we got upgraded by the Sea Temple. We got to go to room 433 which as an upstairs outdoor patio. Well this called for a celebration Alan and Rowena took off and we got upgraded – Yeehaw!
We first stopped by Portabelle which is an Italian place to order the food. Then decided to pop by LiquorLand picked up some Boag’s PURE which is damn good beer by the way, but we also got a bottle of white and a bottle of champagne. We made out way back to the Italian place, and we finished paying for the food and I went to grab the canvas bag and to my amazment instead of picking it up by the loops I picked it up so the loops just slipped out of my hands. Crash. That would be the white wine bottle shattering into a pieces as the champagne bottle body slams it to the floor. With some fast action the gal from the restaurant got some plastic bags and we transferred the beer, champagne to each a bag, and then I gingerly folded up the canvas bag and put that also into a plastic bag. Anwho, we had a great dinner with beer and champagne 😉 The Zoo tomorrow!
Nov 15, 2010
Today is Steve Irwin day so it is fitting that we go to the Cairns Tropical Zoo. We of course missed the bus, so had to hoof it. Neve got to ride on my shoulders most of the way, but I was sweating like a cold ice tea on a hot day – I was just dripping. But we made it by 9:30 just in time for the pelican feeding. These birds are massive, but only weight about 10 pounds they have a wing span of over 6 feet. Just massive. Fiona and Neve threw some fish over the rail and the birds would catch them in their bills. Then it was off the free bird show where all the birds fly in from the back of the stage down to the presenter in the front. Saw many different birds:black cackatoo, white cackatoo, owl, witch tail eagle. Fiona and Neve gave the white cackatoo change and it would take the coin out of Neve’s hand and put it in the bucket to improve the zoo. Pretty neat. We finally had a change to take a break – two ice teas, a coke, and an apple juice later we made our way to the place to take a photo with a Koala, snake, or croc. Needless to say Fiona and Neve got the Koala, I got the croc with Neve. We got family pictures too on our camera – and we got the whole thing on tape to see Neve’s reaction – it would be a hoot to watch. The pictures turned out great, and the ones on my camera are also very cute. Then off to feed the kangaroo’s. We feed the little guys – they were about 4 feet tall. This zoo didn’t have the massive Roo’s that I saw before which were my size which was good becuase I think I would have even been more nervous with a giant Kangaroo than the 4 footers. The kangaroos just laid about and we humans would go up to them and get them to eat out of our hands – they didn’t even have to get up. they have the humans well trained. We took a few pictures – like around 100 of Neve with her Kangaroo. We got to hear the Dingos howl – which sounded much better than the coyote howl, but much cooler than a barking dog – they do not bark – only howl.
Then we wandered around until we got to hot and went back for more iced tea, coke, and apple juice. Then it was time for the crocidile show. A little skinny man and an assitant jumped into the croc pit with a little stick – think of a 6 foot dowl that you hang your clothes on – that the little skinny man would use to fend off a 1 ton croc. Yeah right. Anyway, He showed us two crocs – the first was only 4.5 meters which for those of you doing math is around 14 feet. His head is about 4 feet big. He poked it and it made such a splash. Then he got it out of the water and it was massive. Then he show is another croc that was 5 meters long that ate cows for a snack. It was awesome. I got the whole thing on video of the big one coming out of the water with this little skinny guy holding out pig bits to entice it. Man it was hot. Neve got a little stuffed Koala which she named baby. We caught the bus back around 2 and we made out way to the pool. Neve kicked around for an hour. So you can already tell were this is going – a crash yesterday, and a down right ball of flames this evening when it came to bath time and getting a new diaper on her – no not really, but other than that small tiff between daughter and father it was a great day. Tomorrow we catch the plane to Adelaide via Melborne.
Nov 16, 2010
Travel day. Will update after the day of travel is complete. We are on Virgin blue and they charge for everything. Boo.
>>Update 4<<
We finally arrived in Adelaide and Jim met us at the airport. We had to throw away our apple since Adelaide has such strict fruit and veggie laws. Not really it was a big sign that said ‘throw your stuff away here” and that was it. No inspections, just fines if they find you with fruit. We arrived early and Jim came and fetched us and took us to the middle of Adelaide to another Grande Medina. This grand medina we managed to get on the Internet for FREE! Fiona, Neve, and I arrive before the Rowes so we headed off to get into the central market. It was of course closed. I was under the impression we were off to get food, so after we cleared that up we went to the Lemon & Lime Thai restaurant. They didn’t have Thai iced tea, so I had to twist my arm and have a Coopers. We had very spicy veggie Pad Thai, and some green chicken curry. Neve had gobs of steamed white rice. The Rowes arrived and were back up in room 29. Alan had discovered the free Internet with his smart phone and was glued to his G3s. The Rowes had our left over Thai food. Fiona sent an email off to all the family friends that we had free internet and to get on skype if they had time to see if we were online.
Nov 17, 2010
It was a run about day for us to catchup on things and stock up before we go to Kangaroo Island. First however we had to find the Hertz place for our transportation in and around Adelaide and Kangaroo Island. We first had a full breakfast – the bacon was not crispy, but the back part of the bacon we just right – so I had that. I mixed the orange and pineapple juice together to have my PO – which was very good. Then we got out the TomTom and walked to the Hertz place – a half mile away. I had to trek with the car seat and it was hot. We managed to go the wrong way for a block and then turned around. Anyway we made it and stood in line for 20 minutes, and then 10 minutes later after the lady managed to type everything in twice we had out Toytota Kluger which is the same thing as a Toyota Highlander – it has a third row seat and a back up camera. We strapped in the car seat and we were off – we didn’t know where we were going but we were off. The Neve was behind Alan the driver, Fiona on the jump seat, and Rowe behind me, the navigator with TomTom (Hamish). We drove down and finally hit the ocean, then figured out that the place to be was Glenelg. We found parking for 2 dollars, and walked out to the jetty and looked into the clear water and it was a fabulous day – clear and blue, just great. So we walked up a bit and found the Hogs Breathe, established in 1979. Alan had the potatoe skins, Rowena the squid, Fiona a salad, Neve had nuggets, and I of course had a burger. A very sorry excuse for a burger – some frozen thing that resembled something that might have been beef. it tasted like beef, so it was beef something – anyway, I was not impressed. Back to the car, back to the hotel. We managed to skype with Syd, PopPop, Amah, and chat with Darci. We missed Mark and Iain. It was good to talk with them half way throw our tour. Hopefully they have or will get our postcards.
Fiona and I had more business, i.e. shopping to find me some boots. Jim the driver recommended Trims, just two blocks from the hotel. So we first stopped by the ATM with alan, and off to Trims. Trims was excellent – all sorts of boots, workwear, suits, shirts, shorts, shoes – a great store. I found my Blunstones, a 9.5 in UK size the 500 series. I think the same boot I got 12 years ago, just a great Aussie boot. I probably wear these for 6 years like I did the last set every day until the sole came off – about 3 times as long as my running shoes 😉 They said they are brown, but they look black. Anyway, success. So now I can switch my brain off – I’ve gone diving and I’ve got my boots – now I’m on autopilot! Back to the hotel to get the Rowe and the Nevester. Back out to Goucher street to find some fine dining. We stopped by a little Italian place, and I got some lazanage. Beer and lagzana – very good. The lazanage was teriffic and the beer, Boag’s New very good. Back to the hotel, and off to sleep as we have to get up VERY early and drive to catch the ferry a 2 hour drive, and have to get there 30 minutes prior to the ferry leaving.
Nov 18, 2010
Man it was early. The hotel gave us boxed lunches – bread, jam, veggiemight, and a box of orange juice. I was the only one who managed to toast my bread, and drink my juice. We gathered everything else up as we HAD to go. Alan was unsuccessfully trying to gather the car from the parking garage one block away. The hotel person neglected to show Alan, or Alan failed to understand that you have to go through doors to get the car – a person can’t go thru the rollup doors like the car did. Anyhow, the 3rd time success. Down the 6th floors, 12 turns later and we were out on the rainy, cloudy streets packing up the car. Hamish (TomTom) said we would arrive at 8:15, and we did just in time for the 8:30 boarding time for the 9am ferry. The weather cleared up a bit as we got out of the clouds. The best part of the drive was seeing the sign for “beware of livestock” and then 100 feet later seeing giant diary cows crossing the road. Well crossing and pooping all over it 😉 It was not raining on us at least, like it did pretty much all the way from hotel.
We forgot to grab breakfast so we had doughnuts, coffee, a giant pastry, and some apple juice as we crossed to Kangaroo Island. It took 50 minutes to cross 12 miles of water. Alan had to fold in the mirrors and back into the ferry which takes 50 cars at a time. This is a very big ferry. We arrived and it was suggested that we take a little tour of the island before heading straight to the Kangaroo Island Wilderness Retreat. There are only two roads on the island – one that goes right down the middle and another that goes along the south side of the island. We are getting a tour tomorrow so we opted to for the middle road, Playford Highway. We had TomTom take us to through Kingscote, which we stopped for lunch. We at at the the Cafe and I again tried the burger. Man, another mistake. I should have learned some my previous lunch that burgers are just not the same. We drove through Pardana and we needed gas so stopped at a little place that was the general store – tackle, bait, milk, juice, cold cuts, mail, and gas. Gas was 166 cents per liter – filled up for ~76 dollars. The roads were full of nothing, a very sad start for our wildlife adventure. All we saw was road kill – i.e. previuos lving furry creatures that would have been good to see hopping around as we made our away on the island.
We arrived to the Wildness Retreat on the other side of the island – a 80 mile drive around 4. We booked a guided walking tour for Alan, Rowena, and myself – Fiona opted to stay with Nev tonight and would go on the walk tomorrow with me again. We booked dinner and Fiona & Alan both has a great fillet. I opted for the Salmon – which was very tasty it went will with the Boag’s Premium Beer. Rowena, some fishy thing. A great dinner, but a lack luster day that was mostly driving with little wildlife. The only wild animals we saw was a Kanagroo named Binkie, and some Wallabies after dinner on the way back to our little room. The hotel runs on rainwater and diesel generators – the power like to flip off for brief intervals, but the rooms and environment are great. I’m hoping for an exciting walk tonight.
The walk was crisp, 12 degrees C which is whatever in fairenheit. However, getting to the walk was a little challenging. Either the desk failed to say that we had to drive down to the Koala waling tour or the ones who booked the tour expected a tour bus to pick us up. Either way, we arrived 15 minutes late at 8:45. Luckily we caught up with the tour because we saw the highbeam flashlights dancing up in the trees looking for koalas. We managed to arrive while the group was looking at a mum koala and little baby koala. We saw possums, and hundreds of Wallibies. Wallibies out number kanagroos 4 to 1, and there are over a million wallibies on the island. The flashlight and the rustling pointed to many, many on this preserve. We saw a few more Koalas, and there was a grass tree that grows 1 cm a year – their was one that was 400 years old was was about 16 feet tall. I think we need one in our yard – haahaa. It was a great night and we finished at 10 pm. It was a good way to end the day.
Nov 19, 2010
Ah, the tour day. Our own little private tour with Mary who has lived on the island all her life. She picked us up in a Toyota Land Cruiser that had a tricky hand brake – meaning she had to really yank on it for the truck to not roll away. She picked us up at 8:30am a few minutes late, but new all of our names 😉 Off we went with her telling us the history of the island. The first place we stopped was a lighthouse off the west coast of the island. It was a great little lighthouse – however, that was not the most amazing thing. There was a huge natual arch 1/4 mile down the road. Down a great boardwalk and some steps we walked into a very windy area to see this arch which was awesome. I can tell this is going to be a great tour if this is the beginning. We could see the Remarkable Rocks from the point we were at – a blue and sunny day. Off we went to the Remarkable Rocks, and boy were they remarkable. There are these hunks of granite that about about 40 feet tall that have been wind and rain sculpted into the most remarkable forms and configurations. It was like these huge peice of rocks were on tripods as you could as points in time see right under the rocks! I’m sure the pictures will be better than my discription!
After the Remarkable Rocks a bit of lunch. The non-fishies (Fiona and Alan) had steak – big beautiful 2 inch monsters. Rowena and I had King Richard Whiting fish – which tasted like trout, but without all the silly little bones. A bit of lemon, salt, pepper – it was right crackin with a Coopers beer – it was even better with another one. After lunch down to seal beach, were we got to walk out and be about 30 feet from the seals and sea lions just laying about taking a good nap on the beach. On the way down we got to see an goanna lizard about 2 feet long – pretty neat. To end the day we saw a koala away in the daytime, and some kangaroos on a big state park that only Mary and us could get in today. They were going to have a ferral pig shooting party tomorrow – I can only think of how much fun Mark would have on a pig shooting party. The day ended with a light dinner – I had the fillet and some vanilla ice cream. The best quote of the day was Fiona, “There is always time for those who want to make time” – very deep. Anywho, we are off tomorrow back to the ferry to the airport to make our way to Melbourne.
Nov 20, 2010
Stupid roads. I remember on the way from Adelaide to the ferry down the M2, the highway of the area, if only open one way. We missed it on the way from Adelaide to the jetty, and we missed it on the was back from Kangaroo Island back to the airport in Adelaide. It is open from M-F 12:30AM – 2PM, and Sat,Sun – 2pm – 12:30am. We arrived back to Port Jarvis at 11:30 and was too early to get on the M2. We woke up at 6:30am to pack, eat by 7:30 (no full breakfast for us) and we left at 8am to get drive back along Kangaroo Island to get the 10:30 ferry – we had to arrive by 10 – we got there by 9:30. Plenty of time to get our stuff out of the truck, and see the ferry do a marvelous 180 to park at the dock to take on cars and tourists. We are now at the Adelaide airport waiting for our plane. Had some Hunrgy Jakes for lunch which is Burger King for those in the states. A whopper and coke – which is actually the best burger I’ve had down here in SA (south australia). Our plane is late, but we should be getting on shortly!
I’ve run out of room on the other blog update. We are near the end of our trip is Oz. Here is the latest updated.
>>Update 5<<
Got on the plane 30 minutes late. Virgin Blue, 26 rows, 4 accross – the Embraer 190. In row 23 with the other kids. I’ve got TomTom programed to take us to the place we are staying. So this is just another travel day. Oh hum. Neve played with some girls from Oz, they were between 12 and 14 from what it looked like. She had a good time playing with them, Elmo, Murphy and her blanket. I think she is going to crash again tonight.
Got on the plane finally with my beer. The odd thing is that I walked off without it. DRAT! Some lucky person is going to walk out with 6 nice bottles of beer. We got out luggage and walked over to the Hertz place and got a red Toyota “Highlander”. Set up the TomTom to take us to the Heritiage Seibel Golf Club. Fancy, Fancy. A little taste of what Alan will experience in the desert 😉 Alan and Rowena were in a different wing than the Marshalls. Room 322 for us, with a fold out couch for Neve, and a king for us! I had packed 3 beers in my case. Have not fear I have backup beer. They came out and made there way to the fridge tuit suite. Had dinner at the country club. Neve was friendly with the other patrons, and I had a wonder steak with two neat local beers – the white rabbit a dark ale, and creature beer a lighter hoppy beer. Both good. Neve as predicted was a terror, but when to bed after a bath and some struggle to put on a diaper and PJs. The wedding is tomorrow.
Nov 21, 2010
Wedding day for Neil and the lovely Theresa! A nice buffet breakfast with lots of conference business people. Visited Healyville and there were old MG’s lined up in the little downtown. Alan was pretty much in heaven. Fiona liked the little small town too and visted a few of the shops to browse. She learned that up the streat at the zoo we could see a platapus. So we headed in for 100 dollars and ran through trying to spot the elusive platapus. We did see two in a dark obseratory section swimming in large tanks. It was much too dark to take a picture, but managed to capture one going in circles on video. Alan saw his first tasmanian devil. A little black animal that looks like a cross between a dog and bear with a white stripe along it is chest. It is probably about 15 or 20 pounds about half the size of cypress. Anyway, we raced back to the carpark and decided that we didn’t have time for lunch at a quiant little place but had to go back to the golf club to get ready for the wedding. We got back around 1, and were ready by 2. Off to the wedding to get pictures by 3. We arrived by 2:30 and lunch was still being served in the main house so we made out way to the chappel about 400 yards away. It was hot, but a beautiful blue sky. The Stone winery was very nice. 3 came and the photographer didn’t appear. A wedding person came, the reverand came, but the photographer didn’t come. Theresa’s sister arrived and said the photographer was back at the hotel. We called. Apparently there was a comminication break down. We got the time but not the place, but whatever – I’m just here for the ride. We could drive to the hotel becuase Neil had already left and he was suppose to arrive at 3:40 and the wedding to start around 4.
Neil arrived and everyone made there way into the church. Neil was waiting at the end, and we were in the second row (the first row was for the groomsmen). The each of the two groomsmen trotted down with the purple bridesmaids. Evie ran down the isle saw David and jumped into his arms. Teresa arrived and looked great. Neil got emotional, she got emotional, but she made it. The mother’s lighting candles and then having Neil and Theresa was pretty funny – the flame went out in their first attempt. They did it again with match sticks and it worked much better. It was a nice catholic wedding with a funny old Aussie related to Theresa. It was a good service with Teresa’s sisters singing wonderfully, and lots of prayer for this and that. I’m sure I got a few good shots of the ~550 that I took 😉 Pictures by a grand old oak tree, drinks out on a little porch, and then dinner in the main house. I got venicene and steak – yum. Crown Victoria beer was served and I had quite a bit – I stopped counting after 5 – I think I probably had 7 if I had to make a wager. It was a good time. Teresa and Niel did a dance straight after their introduction as the McDonalds which was halarious. The best man speech was given by two blokes who had a funny accent – from scotland and ireland I think 😉 Their speech was about 20 minutes long and was also very good. The bridesmaid speech was also very good with Theresa the stalker! Fiona, Neve, and the Rowe’s managed to stay up to 11. Back to the room, and in bed.
Nov 22, 2010
Woke up at 4. Neve woke up at 4:20 and wanted to sleep with us. I convinced her to sleep with Elmo in her tent. Back to sleep after a bit of water and some Advil. Good as new by 8am. Down for breakfast and checkout by 11. I left the remaining beer at the hotel as it was too hoppy – no backup beer. Off to a BBQ to Theresa’s oldest sister, Gabrelle. It was located way up in the hills in the little town of Bend of Islands. David married to Gabrelle and have a little boy, Oscar, 8 months old. The BBQ was great – it was good to see all Fiona’s cousins and say hello to Theresa’s family. David is building his house on his own with help from carpenters, plumbers, and electricians – he has pretty much done everything else. David, Zeta, and Evie are off to Singapore today. Gordon, Lucy, and Alex stick around a little longer – we will hopefully catch up with them in Melbourne. We left around 4pm and made it to downtown Melbourne to the Mantra on Russel street. Made out way to the carpark right next door (for 30 dollars a day), and to the 17th floor. Had dinner at the James Squire brewery – yeah! I had a tasting tray of 6 beers for 12 dollars. I like the amber, golden, and porter – the american IPA too bitter, the german lager was not bad but not my favorite, and the was a very light beer, sundown lager, that was crisp but lacked enough taste (It would be great on a hot day, but this was a tasting). I got the chicken parma which was about half a chicken. I managed to eat about three quarters of it. I think if I had to pick a favorite it would be the orignal amber ale. Fiona, Alan, and Rowena had the Golden Ale – they like it. For a 110 dollar meal I was hoping for better. The place we are in we share a bathroom, but at least we have a laundry. We have not had a laundry for about 6 days – glad we got can do some now. We get to do some touristy stuff tomorrow – perhaps go up a really tall building? We have a coupon for 10% off if we show our Virgin Blue boarding passes – yeah!
Nov 23, 2010
Found a MacDonalds to post an update. Ate at the buffet from the hotel this morning. Took the car down to Luna Park and we are now waiting for Majorie, Andrew, Gordon, Lucy, and Alex to arrive via tram. Goodtimes.
>>Update 6<<
The group arrived at 12. It was a beatiful and VERY hot day – 35 degrees C! We took a stroll down the beach to the jetty from Luna Park, and took refuge in any shade that appeared. All the beautiful people and a few odd ugly ones thrown in were on the beach. There was a funny little house at the end of the pier. It was a reproduction as the original house burned down in 2003. I got a coke in a glass Oz. I took a picture of an old Aussie doing some fishing – they do not have poles but a reel of strong line to catch fish! Made out way back and found a little shop to have a bit to eat. I had a ham/cheese panini with a Cascade Premium – good on a hot day. Had a gelato which hit the spot. Found Neil’s place through the worst traffic every – it took 50 minutes to go 5 miles – really bad. It is a good little house that they picked out to rent. Neve jumped up and down on the old wood floor that echoed in front of baby alex. They laughed and giggled together. Then gordon, lucy, and alex are off back on a very long flight back through Dubhai. A 9 hour flight, 4 hour layover, and a 12 hour flight to heathrow. I would not have done this with a 5 month old, but then again all a 5 month does is sleep, eat, and cry 😉 I wish them the best and a safe flight back.
Neil and Theresa just moved into the new place and there were only 4 forks and 4 spoons – so among the 7 of us left we managed to eat some good Thai food. The rice was somehow forgotten, but very good. A quick ride back to the hotel, and Neve is out. A little rag doll, very floppy when putting on jammies. She didn’t wake up at all so we tucked her into the tent.
Nov 24, 2010
Mark’s birthday is in two days. Have to get him something from Oz I think 😉 Man it was a hot night. Neve rolled around the entire night, and Fiona was still away when I went to bed at 11. So a late night and a poor sleep – a very cranky Neve, Fiona, and Tim! (mostly Nev and me). Had the buffet with the living this morning, around 9. Yesterday, we got in around 9:30 right before it shut. Fiona actually got locked out when she went to the bathroom with Neve – it was pretty funny as I heard them called for Daddy to come open the door. Anywho, off for the big Ocean drive. Man it was boring driving to the start of this scenic drive. It is about 60 minutes away and it is all flat and rather dull. We did however finally arrive to Anglesea. From there we drive through some quiant little towns. One of them had a lighthouse in it so we stopped on our way back. We made it to Lorne and had some lunch at a juice, gelato, coffee house. I had a ham/cheese sandwich and a juice os some king, and a 2 scoop mint gelato. Red parrots squaked at us as we took a stroll thru town. Back in the car, and drove a bit more until we decided that it was more of the same, so we turned around and made out way back to the lighthouse. Man the flies were awful at the lighthouse – they would just cover you. It also started to sprinkle, so much for our blue day. We stopped in and got a drink to get juiced for the ride back. However, before we got going we received a text from Marjorie and Andrew – they were on a ferry arriving back to a city near us in Neil’s little smartcar. We meet them around 5:30 at the old carrosel in Geelong. We managed to get there before 5 to Neve could have a ride. She loved it! There were all these funny arty things like a red coat band, and old bouyies that were erractially placed along the boardwalk – Neve had a good time chasing after seagulls. It started to sprinkle more – and it was dinner time. We found a Spanish place that did tapas – we had some nice sausage, fried cheese, olives, toasted bread wit brachettia, and other fildily bits. I had come cheros for desert! The ones at home are much lighter, taster, and bigger than the ones that passed at cheros at this place – the black bull, but overall it was very good. I had I think my very first Spanish beer – Alhambra – which was very good too. It rained hard when were eating dinner, and it was raining when we left. We said goodbye and ran to our cars. Neve managed to stay awake with Fiona’s phone which allowed me to give her a bath. She is now out like a light as I type away on this. We have one more day. I think the plan is to go into the tall building and peer around? Perhaps we will find some stuff for Levi, Kate, and Peter tomorrow when we are out and about. Something for Corey and Darci too as they have been kind enough to look after the house and dog. Hopefully the weather will clear up for some touristy stuff!
Nov 25, 2010
Woke up and it was raining and miserable. Had the buffet breakfast. Neve decided to have a breakdown so I took her out of the restaurant and there was a conference going on – so I put her in a seat and told her to stay. She glided off – I told her to get back on – big cry. Picked her up and went to the room and asked her to use her words. She nodded her head. use your words, “Yes” she replies. Good. Back down to give mommy a hug. Mommy explains that grunting, pointing, and whining does not provide enough communication to understand if she is done with her breakfast. All is good now. Hamish (TomTom) is used to discover how far the tallest building in Melbourne lives – it is .5 of a mile. in the rain? The Rowe’s and Fiona decide to drive. We do. We go in a circular pattern around the city until we hit our target – the Eureka Building. It has giant Bees as artwork on the outside of the building – weird, but interesting. Parking costs 17 dollars an hour. We decided it would be best to take only an hour in the lovely tall building. Up we go 88 floors, 9 meters a second – my ears pop twice. There are about 50 kids the ages of 8 to 10 at the top of the building schreeking like baby birds and creating as big a mess as birds too. The views were good – the weather decided to give us a break and stop raining for the 40 minutes we were at the top. I took a potty break – I can claim I took a potty in the tallest building in Melbourne – haahaa. Back on the elevator they had a picutre of the elevator shaft on the bottom of the elevator – they was pretty neat. It was raining at the bottom – Boo. Headed back to the car park to pay our 17 dollars – Boo.
Off to Brighton to see Micheal Styles, a second cousin to Rowena – her grandmother’s sister’s son. He was a lovely old English chap who was about 80 with a cane. He immegrated and emmigrated between England and Auzzie about 8 times. I guess his wife is buried here, so we is going to stay too. He is in this posh upscale apartment complex that is near the bus and train lines. There is a pub across the street. We braved the rain and crossed. I had spagetti and meatballs in a huge bowl. Alan had the same. However, I had a little glass of beer, called a ‘pot’. A pot instead of a pint – it is about half the size. Fiona I both had beer, surprise, surprise. We both had the Fat Yak – it was pretty good. Fiona even liked it too, so it must have been good. Then we decided to split a pint – she gave me money and said what ever she didn’t have I could finish, anything but Guinness (which they had on tap)- sounded good to me. So off I went to get a pint. I got some Kilkerny, but she didn’t know that. This was another nice creamy nitrogen beer that had to sit. She thought I got a Guinness because I didn’t instantly come back with a pint in hand. She was pissed becuase she thought I got Guinness, then she got even more mad when they thought I got a jug (a pitcher) of Guinness. Anyway, the Kilnery arrived and she complained she couldn’t drink it cause it had too much foam. The foam in the best part – a beerstache 😉 Anyway, I new she would like it becuase it was a red pale ale – which she likes so she couldn’t be that mad at me – haahaa. She did like it (I asked and she said she did). Back to Micheal’s apartment where he had been living for 8 months, but he had not unpacked yet. Rowena and Michael caught up and Alan tried explaining cricket to me. I sort of understand it, but had some questions he could not answer, but doubt I’ll ever watch a match unless nothing else was on. This was a famous match between Aussie and England, the ashes, called becuase of the buringin of the bales (whatever those are). England was batting first. I have no idea who won, but think the match is still being played for all I know. Neve was falling asleep – time to go. We said our goodbyes, and Alan/Rowena urged him to get connected on a computer so they could keep in touch better. It was not raining, but we made it back to the hotel around 5. Majorie and Andrew arrived to check out the room on the 17th floor – they like it. They like it so much they wanted to go get their dirty laundry and come back and wash it 😉 We caught up and decided to hoof it to dinner. We wandered around until we came to the Spaggetti Tree. Of course I had to have pasta at a pub, so it only made sense for me to get pub food at an Italian place. I did. The chicken satay was ok, but the sundae desert was great. I had two James Boag’s premium beer – over all a pretty good meal with the beer and sundae being the best parts. We walked back to the hotel and said our goodbyes in our room to Majorie and Andrew. We hope to see them in the spring either us coming to their part of the pond or them flying to us. It is our last day. Tomorrow the travel day, Mark’s birthday all day for 36 hours or so. We have to get up at 5:30 to leave by 6 to arrive to the airpot to get our 7:45 plane.
Nov 26, 2010
Boy it was early. Neve had some milk. Neve had some milk come back out all over the floor as we are leaving – too early, too much milk, too much hustle and bustle this morning for our little ~2.5 year old. Poor thing. No breakfast for us this morning. I checked us out of the hotel and the rest of the crew trundled to the car. Hamish successfully got us to the airport, but we arrive to a tremdous long line on virgin blue – everyone and their uncle seemed to want to travel this morning. We heard the call for the 7:45 flight – so we jumped to the front of the line. Our bags got on, now to find out way to gate 2? The arrow pointed up, but all the gates were down – Fiona spotted the corridor for our gate. Down we went thru a pain free security check. The plane was boarding when we arrived to the aget. It is now 11/26 at 8:30am and we are on our way to Sydney to go thru the process of getting our bags and going through security a second time to get on a jumbo jet, 777, back to LAX. If there is wireless (which there should be) I’ll post this up. On the plane we briefly saw the Thanksgiving bowl with New Orleans and Dallas – ha, it is Thanksgiving in the states! Anyway, safe travels to us and a very Happy birthday to Mark. I hope to pick him up something great at the Sydney airport otherwise it will be a gift card to sears or perhaps another mustang part (maybe something cool like a headlight) 😉
Made it to the airport in sydney. trying to get on wireless. Leaving on flight QF107 we board at 11:05, and leave at 11:50.
>>Last Update<<
Nov 26th, 2010 <again>
We arrived at LAX and the car seat was the last peice of luggage off the plane. Out of the airport by 7:45 and a little man was waiting with Fiona’s name. Yeah! In the van by 8 and in Palm Desert just after 10am. Great Time – I think he was going 80 the entire time. Yeah baby! Anyway, back in CA and it is a great day. The premium economy seats in Quantas are the excellent. Fiona is now going to travel premium economy on quantas all the time 😉 It was so nice I was bumbed that we were landing. The seats folded straightout so we could lay straight out at a slight angle. They had massage and about 16 driffernt movements so you could position it just right – awesome it was. I kept telling how nice premium economy was and he kept telling me to shut up for some reason 😉
Mom and Dad (Judy and Frank) were thrilled to see us. Dad was out buying beer, coke, and champagne for the weary travellers. Then we just collapsed on the couches and took various power naps, I think mine lasted 3 hours. Fiona slept on the plane, so she was very proud to not have taken a nap. Then it was Thanksgiving leftovers, Mom had cooked a giant turkey breast, whipped potatoes, salad, green beans, and some rolls – very good. I think I took a dip in the pool with Neve later in the day – things are a bit fuzzy.
I know we called Mark. He was not home – he was out getting his birthday present – a new red Ford 150 with the v-8 instead of the green motor v-6 motor that had the supercharger on it (oh well). Anyway, He showed up a bit later and we called him and wished him a happy birthday around 8. Micah was very tired – she had been taking care of the kids for about 2 weeks straight and there was a snow day thrown in there too – so three kids at once. They are pretty much going to be kid central for them for the next 2 years – so they are going to be hiding in their house for the next two years to make sure the kids don’t kill each other – ha. It was good to talk with them. Anyway it was an early night for us – went to bed around 8pm right after talking with Mark. During the night Neve had a fit and slept in our bed.
Nov 27, 2010
Neve kicks in her sleep – alot. But we slept in till 11am. It was Saturday – so we had grilled cheese and soup out on the deck. It was another gorgious day in the desert – none of this cold rainy crap like in San Jose at the moment. Another dip in the pool after lunch – a good hour and half. I tried to fix the spa light that has mysteriously popped out. Kate and Ms. Gorely popped overto say hello. They are family friends from way back – the last time we saw them was at our wedding – Kate was about 1. Dick Gorely now living in Menlo Park and Ms Gorely and Kate are up in Sacramento. Kate who is now 8 in the third grade was great with Neve – a nice to see both of them doing so well. We went to the poorhouse for dinner – Alan was glad because he got to wear his jeans. Made reservations at 5:15 so we could go to the Palm Desert Living Festival of Lights. The Light Festival was fantastic. The parking lot was packed – I do not think I’ve ever seen the parking lot this full. The outdoor train set was amazing at nighttime – we have only seen it in the day time and it is very good then. Neve was very exciting about the trains which is neat – we might have to set up the model set that I have for Christmas. There was a carasel, a santa claus, camel rides, a music light tunnel, giant lit up sculptures of bears, bunnies, butterflies, and other creatures. It was not too cold if you wore enough layers too! We finished around 8 and got back for some left over pumpkin pie and a horrible predictable movie called leap year. I like Amy Adams, and Ireland – makes me want to go vist and have a Guinness but otherwise a harmless chic flick. Off to bed – but I couldn’t sleep. My plan of putting Neve in her tent didn’t work. So she fell asleep with us and I put her back in her tent.
Nov 28, 2010
Neve woke up at some ungodly hour and wanted to come back into the big bed with us. I relented and she wanted to play. Yeah lets play at 3am – no, I was not playing or cheerful. Anway she finally quieted down and we slept in till 10. Dad (Frank) made a tee time for 10 for me and him. We missed it. Oh well we started at 11 instead. We played the Mountain course. It was another beautiful day. Lots of roadrunners out and about. I almost ‘jarred’ my chip shot on the first hole to get a birdie – I missed by 2 inches. No birdies, a couple pars, but otherwise it was an okay round of golf for me – 104 a very liberal score as few holes were tin cup worthy. I had to push the golf cart up 15 as it was a very steep hill – the batteries are fine, but the motor didn’t have enough guts to get us up this hill. Had a guinness and quesadia at the locker room around 2 for lunch. Fiona and the crew went to a shopping market and Fiona picked up a few goodies that will go with the Aussie goodies for the Seattle Marshalls for the holidays.
Mary Lou and Tom Pitcher and Robin and Carlen Stonehill popped over to see the wunderkind child. Mary Lou picked up a golden book for sleepy time stories which was very nice – will have to send a thank you card. it was Tom’s birthday so we sang a round of happy birthday. We showed off the flip camera which is the tee prize for the Hope in the few months. Neve showed off her picture taking skills and the ipad skills too. It was a pizza dinner and a bad movie night. The movie, Push, with two people that have been in other flicks (Dakota Fanning & a white guy) – very predictable overall, but liked the clever way of rearranging the future. I’d give it a B- or C+. MY two favorite movies on the plane rides was despicable me and inception a close thrid was dinner for shumcks. Another restless night as both Fiona and myself had a hard time getting to sleep. Neve again fell asleep in our bed, and another try and putting her in the tent was useless.
Nov 29, 2010
Neve again was up at an some redicilous hour of the morning asking to get inthe big bed. I got the pillow and used it as a buffer to counteract the kicking that ensured for the next hour as she played and tossed and turned. Today was travel day, up at 7am. Our plane leaves at 1pm not sure why we got here at 10am. Alas here we are and the family has gone to TGI’s so I’m going to stop sitting by myself and go join them for lunch. ta ta for now.
Had a sandwich for lunch. A nicer lady named Sue played with Neve and we chatted before getting on the plane. The flight was tame. We arrived back in the new terminal and Darci picked us up, we are now back home. I swept up the pine needles and went thru some mail. I tried getting my work email – it has crashed. I tried to crtl+alt+del and it is still stuck… so there ya go. Work tomorrow – joy.
The vacation is over. it was fun. I like blogging, so I will probably continue, but on a real blog as the Shutterfly does not support an RSS feed… to bad so sad. I’ll move everything over to a blog site and then link to that. Good times, eh.